The new faction will be named Independence,(Atzmuat) according to what Barak told a press conference at the Knesset today.

"We are setting up a faction, a movement and later on a party, which will be Zionist, central and democratic, and will follow David Ben-Gurion's legacy," the defense minister said, promising that the new faction would put Israel first.

"Then comes the party and then come we," he added. "The motto will be what is good for the State of Israel."

"We are facing difficult challenges, focusing on the peace process with the Palestinians, security-related and economic and social challenges. We are ready and willing to deal with all these challenges."

"We are leaving a party and a home we like and respect… Many of its members have experienced over the years the difficulties of daily life and the ongoing and unhealthy situation in the Labor Party, and they too were victims of the ongoing squabbles, the troubling drift to the left."

Barak slammed Labor members who he said "have been dragged to the Left, to post-modernism and post-Zionism."